This book assumes an everyday life perspective towards masking in public spaces in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic. Facemasks are perhaps one of the most tangible ways in which the changes wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic were made visible. In the space of a few months in 2020, masking in the UK went from being almost non-existent in public to becoming widespread, both before and after the UK government mandated masking in most enclosed public spaces in July 2020. In this context, the speed and scale of the introduction of masking in public settings offers sociologists a rare chance to document the (contested) emergence of a new social practice. The authors argue that the nature of masking during the pandemic means that masking practices need to be understood through the entwinement of material, interactional, and moral dimensions. By developing a relational perspective to explore the relationship between the materiality and moral significance of masking, and how this translated into the development of masking practices in public spaces, the authors argue further that the specific context of masking during the pandemic provides sociologists with a unique lens to think through the nature of material, interactional, and moral practices in general.

Explores masking during the pandemic from an everyday life perspective Approaches the topic of masking in terms of material, interactional, and moral practice Presents a framework that encompasses relationality and everyday life, morality, materiality and socio-technical studies

Autorentext

Owen Abbott is Lecturer in Social Sciences at Cardiff University, UK. He authored The Self, Relational Sociology, and Morality in Practice, which was awarded the British Sociological Association's Philip Abrams Prize 2020 for best first, sole-authored book. His original restorative work on Du Bois's studies of morality has been esteemed by the American Sociological Association's Altruism, Morality and Social Solidarity section. Abbott also co-authored Masking in the Pandemic: Materiality, Interaction, and Moral Practice. He has recently completed a Leverhulme Trust-funded empirical project exploring forgiving and not forgiving in personal relationships, continuing his interest in the moral dynamics of personal lives.

Klappentext

This book assumes an "everyday life" perspective towards masking in public spaces in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic. Facemasks are perhaps one of the most tangible ways in which the changes wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic were made visible. In the space of a few months in 2020, masking in the UK went from being almost non-existent in public to becoming widespread, both before and after the UK government mandated masking in most enclosed public spaces in July 2020. In this context, the speed and scale of the introduction of masking in public settings offers sociologists a rare chance to document the (contested) emergence of a new social practice. The authors argue that the nature of masking during the pandemic means that masking practices need to be understood through the entwinement of material, interactional, and moral dimensions. By developing a relational perspective to explore the relationship between the materiality and moral significance of masking, and how this translated into the development of masking practices in public spaces, the authors argue further that the specific context of masking during the pandemic provides sociologists with a unique lens to think through the nature of material, interactional, and moral practices in general.

Inhalt

Chapter 1 Introduction: Masks in the Pandemic, Masks in Everyday Life.- Chapter 2 Masks and Materiality.- Chapter 3 Masking and the (Re)making of the Public Realm.- Chapter 4 Masks, Lay Moralities.- and Moral Practice.- Chapter 5 Conclusion: Masks and Uncertainty.